When Push Comes To Shove
by sniggles
Summary: A post-Bartlet's Presidency tale... with a twist.
1. You've Got To Want It

I don't own the West Wing characters, nor do I claim to. So no suing, please - I have exactly $10.05 to my name.  
  
This takes place in the future, after the second term of Bartlet's Presidency. Everything from the first and second seasons is fair game in the spoilage territory.  
  
  
"You've Got To Want It"  
by Rebecca A. Anderson  
sniggles@claudia-jean.net  
May 2001  
  
  
Black was the color of the day. Flags all over the United States flew at half-mast. Old friends who had lost touch gathered to remember a brilliant man. A flawed man. A man who had given them chances at new life.  
  
Josiah Bartlet had died peacefully in his sleep after suffering a stroke several days before. It was as if his body had given up on housing his intellect, his soul, and had merely shut down, allowing that brilliance to escape away to the farthest reaches of heaven itself. Who knew - maybe President Bartlet was at that very moment annoying God Himself with facts about the migratory patterns of the Humu-humu-nuku-nuku-apua'a. Try saying that three times fast.  
  
The funeral was small and private - only friends and family. His Senior Staff, after the White House, had scattered to the four corners of the earth - literally. Leo had stayed close by the Bartlets, as was to have been expected. Sam had run for a seat in the New York state House of Representatives - and had won. Josh and Donna had gone in search of the next "Real Thing", and as far as anyone knew, they were still looking. Toby had helped win a Senatorial and a Gubernatorial campaign, and was at present, thinking about retiring. Abbey had settled down into a life of caring for her husband as his MS began to switch course, and making sure that those pesky grandkids kept out of his steaks. And CJ had stayed close to the Bartlets as well, having stayed on as a mouthpiece for the former President and his wife.  
  
Things were... different, that was for sure, when they met for the lying-in-state in Washington. They had changed, every last one of them.  
  
They were married, or emotionally involved, whereas before... nothing. They were different, older, wiser... stranger. More eccentric. As if that hadn't been bad enough in the White House!  
  
Sam had married, after much struggle and more than a few knock-down, drag-out fist fights, Mallory O'Brien, much to Leo's delight. It was a never-ending source of amusement for him to torment his son-in-law - especially in front of the grandkids.  
  
Josh and Donna had seen fit not to get married, but to live together outside of the bounds of matrimony. They never had been a conventional couple - why start there? They had adopted two children - one as a small baby, one as a grumpy teenager who needed a good kick in the pants. One day with "Uncle Jed", and said teenager was as good as gold.  
  
Toby was seeing Caroline Johannsen, a computer programmer, and lived in New York, where he spent a lot of time working on a book he would never finish because he could never get it just right. No one could capture Josiah Bartlet in words, though Toby delighted in trying. He and Caroline were due to become parents for the first time in about four months.  
  
Leo had found a widow named Mary Tobin down the country road from the Bartlets, and they had been married for three years. Mary adored Mallory and Sam, and their children, and had been one of Abbey's close friends for years. They lived happily in Mary's cottage within a stone's throw of the Bartlets.  
  
And CJ...  
  
CJ had never yet found someone to her liking for the founding of a relationship, so she remained unmarried, not living with anyone but Jed and Abbey, and certainly not sexually involved. Every Christmas, she would fly home to California to see her family, and the journey back to New Hampshire would always be like a new homecoming for her. Her life was truly entwined with the Bartlets, and she wouldn't give that up for anything.  
  
After the lying-in, everyone headed over to the White House, where they had been invited for dinner by President Hoynes. It was hard to be back in the place where they had built so many memories. It was hard for everyone.  
  
Dinner was strained and long, no one quite able to articulate their feelings at being back in this oh-so-familiar setting. But as they left, they exchanged addresses and phone numbers, promising to call or write - something that they may or may not have had any intention of doing.  
  
Abbey and CJ went back upstairs to the White House Residence, where President Hoynes had insisted they stay during the lying-in. Sam and Mallory, and their children, and Josh and Donna, and their children, went back to their hotel, as did Toby and Caroline. And Mary and Leo went out for a walk on the Mall before heading for their hotel.  
  
The next day found them all heading home. CJ, Abbey, Leo, and Mary escorted the body of a brilliant President back to New Hampshire, where he was buried on a hill on the farm property. Sam and Mallory went back to work, Sam at the New York Statehouse, Mallory at a public school in Albany. Josh and Donna went back to Michigan, where Josh was trying to talk Aaron Pittenger to run for Governor, and Donna was trying to teach secretaries to type. Toby and Caroline went back to New York, where he went back to work on that book that he could never seem to finish, and she went back to her programming.  
  
As the next few months passed, things began to change, for all they stayed the same. Leo and Mary decided to move to Florida when Abbey announced her intent to travel the world until she died, and to serve as the head of the Red Cross. Donna quit her job when she was passed up for a promotion, and Josh finally convinced Pittenger to run - only to find out about all of his indiscretions. Sam decided to run for the New York state Senate, and Mallory went back to school nights to get her Masters' in elementary education. Toby gave up on trying to perfect his book and sent it off to a publisher to be published as-was, and became a stay-at-home father, delighting in his ability to change his daughter's diapers and give her a bath. And CJ began to entertain thoughts of going back to California.  
  
But everything changed completely when the wall of silence finally broke. CJ called Toby to complain about how her life was suddenly going nowhere fast. He listened sympathetically, then told her to remember it had taken him nearly eight years to write a book that wasn't even going to sell very well. His advice was to step back and look at what she wanted.  
  
So she sat in Jed Bartlet's private study late one night, behind the desk, just thinking. She had made a difference in the White House. She had been one of the ones to help make the world a better place. Or so she hoped. She had enjoyed that feeling.  
  
And then she remembered something Jed had told her one night. She had been watching the news with Jed and Abbey, listening to what new disasters had been sprung upon the earth, when Jed said, completely out of the blue, "You know what I've learned in life, Claudia Jean? You've got to want it. Everything you aim for - you've got to want it badly enough to work your ass off to get it." And then there had been no more on that subject, ever. It was strange, the way his mind had deteriorated near the end. He would say things out of context, and she could tell that it infuriated him not to be able to say what he wanted to. But this... this was a message.  
  
She did want to make a difference.  
  
She searched through her address book and found Josh and Donna's phone number, and dialed. An hour later, they had a strategical plan all laid out. And the first thing on that plan was to talk Toby out of retirement.  
  
Two weeks later, everyone was sitting around the Bartlets' huge oak dining room table, staring at CJ expectantly. Abbey, Leo, Mary, Sam, Mallory, Toby and Caroline... Josh and Donna already knew what was about to come.  
  
CJ smiled nervously, then tried to launch into a carefully scripted proposal, but stopped, and said, "Y'know, you all are family, and I can say anything." She took a deep breath and said, "I'm running for the Senate for the state of New Hampshire."  
  
The shock around the room was nothing short of incredible. CJ? Run for the Senate? CJ? Eaten alive by the political monster? CJ?!  
  
"Josh and Donna have agreed to help me run my campaign, I already have contributions from EMILY'S List and several other women's groups lined up - I can do this. But I don't want to do it without all of you," she explained. "If nothing else, I just need your support."  
  
Support was something she received more than ample amounts of from her friends. When the election was over, and she was safely back in Washington, back in the middle of the fray of politics, Josh was her Chief of Staff, Donna was her Press Secretary, Toby was her Director of Communications, and Leo was her policy advisor. It was a heavy team - one she was glad to have.  
  
Four years later, CJ Cregg, Democratic Senator from New Hampshire, announced her intent to seek the Vice-Presidency of the United States, alongside Daniel Biggs for President. Sam had lost his seat in the New York Senate, and joined CJ's campaign team next. Then Abbey stopped traveling, and sat back to watch her friend come, see, and conquer. Mary took over as CJ's secretary, and Caroline even knew something wonderful was coming.  
  
When Vice-President Claudia Cregg announced her engagement to Senator Hansen from New Hampshire, the press was abuzz. The wedding was a huge public circus, basically, but all that mattered was that she felt the spirit of Josiah Bartlet with her, egging her on, daring her to be better than she was.  
  
When President Biggs died in office, Claudia Jean Cregg stepped up to the plate to bat for him and what he - what they both - had believed in.  
  
She was the first woman to be President of the United States.  
  
Black was the color of another day, not long after she was inaugerated for her first term in her own right. Leo McGarry, former Secretary of Labor, former Chief of Staff for President Bartlet, and Deputy Chief of Staff for President Cregg, died of complications following surgery. His last words to his President, his protégé, his friend... were: "You've got to want it. And when you want it enough, it falls in your lap."  
  
Two full terms. And a partial.  
  
CJ Cregg had made a difference.  
  
After she left office, it was different. They all stayed in touch, in fact, couldn't bear to be apart for long. They mourned together when they lost, first, Abbey, then Mary. And then when they lost one of their own - Toby was killed in a car wreck after being struck by a drunk driver - they came together again.  
  
CJ Cregg, former President of the United States, took the podium to deliver his eulogy. She looked down at the speech that Sam had prepared so carefully for her, then folded it back up and put it in her jacket pocket before beginning to speak.  
  
"Once, a long time ago, a man I love dearly and respect more than anyone else, told me 'You've got to want it'," she started, her voice beginning to tremble. "Toby Ziegler made me step back and take a look at what I wanted. He was my best friend, even if I never said it enough. And he stayed by me when I made my mistakes. Sure, he reamed me a new one if I made an idiot out of myself publicly, but he was always there in the meetings, saying 'You've got to look at what you want'. Toby was... an incredible man, a wonderful man, and I thank him every day for everything he's done for me. Ladies and gentlemen, life is what you make of it. And you've got to want it."  
  
She stepped down from the podium and went back to her seat, where she cried for the cameras, and wept from the heart.  
  
After her husband died, time found Claudia Jean sitting on the hill, talking to the man who had pushed her and egged her on, never letting her back down. She talked to Jed and Abbey every day, and the day she died, she whispered to Tate Lyman, "Anything in life.... You've got to want it."  
  
She wanted it.  
  
She took it.  
  
And life was good.  
  
  
Finis  



	2. Inadequacy and the Single Woman

I don't own them - Aaron Bejamin Sorkin does. However, this little alternate universe is all mine, and it began with "You've Got To Want It". The series finally has a title - "When Push Comes To Shove".  
  
  
When Push Comes To Shove:  
Inadequacy and the Single Woman  
By Rebecca A. Anderson  
Sniggles@claudia-jean.net  
May 2001  
  
  
Leo's getting married. He told us tonight. So, here I am, moping around with half a gallon of rocky road.  
  
We've both been alone for so long that I guess I thought we could just be alone together. Years of friendship... he's always been the one that was here, up in the middle of the night when I needed someone to talk to.  
  
I put him on a pedestal - oh, hell, who am I trying to kid? I fell in love with him. But no way am I gonna screw up this chance for his happiness. I love him so much that I have to let him go.  
  
He and Mary will be happy together, and I will be completely miserable.  
  
Is there no man in this world who can look past the fact that I am not incredibly drop-dead gorgeous? Is there anyone that doesn't think I'm too tall or too smart? Just once, I want to feel like someone really does care.  
  
For God's sake - Erin and Tracy came to visit a couple of weeks ago, and big surprise!, my nieces who love me, who have always idolized me, didn't want to have anything to do with me. All they wanted was to be spoiled to death by Jed and Abbey. Since Jed retired, it seems like all he cares about is spoiling his grandkids and stealing my nieces' love. But then, he's always got to be the center of attention, and I've always just stepped to the side, out of the way, harboring and nurturing a desire to step into that spotlight...  
  
I did get a brief flash of that light a few weeks ago, inbetween Jed shooting off his mouth. For a whole day, I got to bask in the glory... I got my PhD, and I celebrated, we partied... Toby even came up from New York, and those who couldn't make it all sent flowers. It was fabulous, and the experience has left me with the feeling that my life is now lacking. But then, maybe it always was? God, do I sound inadequate or what?  
  
I have a delicious job - it's comfortable for me, it's something I want to keep doing for as long as Jed and Abbey will have me do it. I have wonderful friends, even if most of us don't talk much anymore... New Hampshire has become my home; Jed, Abbey, and Leo have become my family.  
  
I wouldn't trade that for anything.  
  
  
  
  
  
CJ heard footsteps on the stairs and she crumpled the sheet of paper she had been scribbling on into a ball. "Leo! What are you doing up?"  
  
Leo raised an eyebrow. "I could ask you the same thing, Ceej. Got enough of that to share?" he asked, gesturing at the tub of ice cream.  
  
"Yeah - grab a spoon," she replied, pitching her paper ball across the room into the trash can. "I was just trying to start writing that thing for Abbey for that career day thing next week - I couldn't sleep."  
  
Leo nodded. "Me, too... I keep worrying about Mary and me. It's strange that I should only really begin to worry about it now, after we've decided to get married..."  
  
"No, not really - you've both been burned by love before and you're both worried about being hurt again. But you're both gonna find that the love outweighs the fears." She stood up and said, "Enjoy the ice cream - I'm going to bed. Goodnight, Leo."  
  
"Sleep well," he replied.  
  
He waited until she was up the stairs before closing the ice cream and setting aside his unused spoon.  
  
  
Finis  



	3. Defining Parameters

I don't own them - Aaron Benjamin Sorkin does. However, this alternate universe is all mine, and began with "You've Got To Want It" and "Inadequacy and the Single Woman".  
  
  
When Push Comes To Shove:  
Defining Parameters  
by Rebecca A. Anderson  
sniggles@claudia-jean.net  
May 2001  
  
  
"Hey," Ainsley greeted Leo, who was playing doorkeeper. "Can I go in and see her?"  
  
"She's pretty pissed about getting drummed out of the Party," Leo warned.  
  
"Yeah, well, I've got a tape of yesterday's Capitol Beat, so she can stop being so pissy," Ainsley said with a smile. "And besides... maybe it's for the best that she's splitting away from the Democrats and pursuing her own options."  
  
"Maybe," Leo conceded grudgingly. "Go on in. And don't look at her like she looks horrifying, because it makes her feel really self-conscious."  
  
"I've seen her at her worst, Leo - no big deal," Ainsley said with a smile. "By the way, Oliver said to tell you hello."  
  
"Tell him I said hi back."  
  
Ainsley nodded and smiled before steadying herself and walking into CJ's hospital room calm, cool, and collected. "Hi, CJ."  
  
CJ looked up from the folder she had in her hands and tipped her glasses further down her nose. "Ainsley! Hey! What are you doing here?!" she exclaimed in shock.  
  
"Well, all things considered, I thought a visit might just be in order," Ainsley admitted with a warm smile. "How do you feel?"  
  
"Oh, like crap - but it's not a big deal because I'll feel much worse by the time this is all over with. Did you bring flowers?"  
  
"No... I brought something better."  
  
"What? Chocolate?"  
  
"No... a video tape of yesterday's Capitol Beat."  
  
CJ groaned and closed the folder over her face. "AINSLEY!"  
  
"What? It's not a big deal - I just bribed Mark Godfrey to give me the first unedited copy."  
  
"No, you know what I mean - I got eaten alive!"  
  
"Not really, well... not originally, anyway. And I did a good job of stepping up to the plate for you. I think I got bleeped more times last night then I have the entire rest of my life!" Ainsley giggled. "Wanna see the whole thing? What didn't make it to air?"  
  
CJ sighed. "I guess."  
  
Ainsley smiled and popped the tape into the VCR.  
  
"Welcome to Captiol Beat, this is Mark Godfrey. Tonight, my guests: to my right, political analyst and counsel to Senator Mark Hamlin, Ainsley Hayes; to my left, the charming and witty Representative Deborah Wittier. Tonight's topic: how much personal information about our political candidates is too much, and how much is too little."  
  
CJ sighed and stifled another groan.  
  
"Ladies, just yesterday, Claudia Jean Cregg, the forerunner in the Democratic nomination process for the Senate in New Hampshire, called a press conference to announce an altered campaign schedule to accommidate her treatments for breast cancer. Now, one must wonder what exactly was going through her mind when she announced, in effect, to the whole world at large that she has cancer."  
  
"Well, I think it was a bad idea all around, Mark," Deborah spoke up. "She effectively ended her DNC-funded campaign the instant she opened her mouth about her cancer."  
  
"I don't see why," Ainsley threw in. "Whether or not she gets funding from the DNC, she is the forerunner in that particular race, and the fact that CJ has breast cancer won't affect her ability to represent New Hampshire in the Senate."  
  
"I disagree - who really knows what radiation and chemotherapy do to a person..."  
  
"Oh, please! Like it was a question in 1998, when Daniel Westbrooke ran for, and won, the open seat for Georgia - no one questioned his ability to..."  
  
"Miss Hayes..."  
  
"I think it's because she's a woman."  
  
"EXCUSE ME?!"  
  
"I think it's because she's a woman, and she's Josiah Bartlet's political protégé. You don't want her to come into power because she has his training under her belt, his ideas wound up to bat, and if it leaks out that she is smarter than your average Senator, wow, there goes the Senate."  
  
"You have no idea what you're talking about."  
  
"Oh really? Marcia Hamblin - two years ago, showing signs of intelligence and Bartletism, you slapped down her campaign in the California 26th."  
  
"Because we wanted Juan Montez to win."  
  
"So you could keep that part of California under your thumb? Well, let me tell you something - I have seen a lot of politicians. And in this day and age in politics, CJ Cregg is phenomenal. Not only did she face a Grand Jury during the Bartlet Administration, she did so with grace and poise. And now, she came forward to tell the world that she has an illness that kills millions of women in this country each year, and that she will continue to fight the battle. She did it to show people everywhere that she is still strong, still fighting, still kicking - and to set herself apart from Jed Bartlet, her political mentor, who left his degenerative illness undisclosed for so long."  
  
"And we'll take a break now, and be back with more from Ainsley Hayes and Deborah Wittier."  
  
CJ stared at Ainsley. "You realize you defended a former Democrat?"  
  
"No, CJ, I defended my friend. And besides, being married to Oliver Babish has... changed some of my political views. I was beginning to lean a little more to center, anyway." Her smile was enormous. "How do you feel now? I mean, you got drummed out of your Party but..."  
  
"But I've got someone ready to pick up the cloak. You're looking at the candidate for the Women's Liberty Party for the open Senate seat of New Hampshire. They love me," CJ said, smiling weakly.  
  
"Great!" Ainsley leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "I've got to get back to Washington, but you'd better believe if you win, I'll chuck in my resignation and come work for you."  
  
"I'm gonna kick some ass, girl, just you watch," CJ replied with a grin. "Kiss the kids and Oliver for me."  
  
"No problem."  
  
  
  
Finis   



	4. At Least I'm Not the Dead Guy in the Sen...

I don't own them - Aaron Benjamin Sorkin does. However, the saga that is "When Push Comes To Shove" is all mine... So far, we've had "You've Got To Want It", "Inadequacy and the Single Woman", and "Defining Parameters".  
  
Thanks to everyone who likes this and is sticking around with it, despite the fact that it's leaping from place to place like an insane lemur.  
  
  
  
When Push Comes To Shove:  
At Least I'm Not the Dead Guy in the Senate  
by Rebecca A. Anderson  
sniggles@claudia-jean.net  
May 2001  
  
  
  
"Who's gonna tell her?" Josh asked the group at large. They were all sitting around the coffee table in Abbey's living room with huge mugs of coffee, trying to decide how to give CJ the outcome of the election. She had been back in the hospital for her final chemo treatment, and they were pretty sure she wouldn't have much felt like tracking her public campaign over the last few days.  
  
"I vote Leo," Abbey said, nudging Leo in the ribs with her elbow. "He'll know how to handle it."  
  
"Are you saying I can't handle a simple task like telling Claudia Cregg she's New Hampshire's new Senator?" Josh said indignantly.  
  
"Yes, she is, Joshua," Toby replied, fighting to keep a straight face. Caroline came back downstairs and joined them. "Is Allie sleeping?" he asked.  
  
"Finally, yes, no thanks to you guys," Caroline teased. "Where's my coffee?" she whined, then smiled sweetly as Toby obediently pushed his mug her way. "Thanks, Tobes."  
  
"Yeah - I didn't need it anyway," he grumped. "So, Leo, you want to tell her?"  
  
"Okay, fine," Leo agreed. "When does that shop open, Abbey?"  
  
"Which shop?"  
  
"That one we were going to go to yesterday."  
  
"Ohh... *that* shop. I can call Kellie and have it open any time you want it, Leo."  
  
Leo stood up and smiled. "Make the call, Abbey."  
  
And hour later, he was standing outside CJ's hospital room, holding a bouquet of flowers he'd taken from Abbey's garden, and carrying a box. He went inside and stared down at her for a long time. She had fought her cancer with everything she had, and was now just utterly exhausted. Running a campaign at the same time couldn't have been easy, but she had done it.  
  
"Who's staring at me now?" she mumbled, rolling over to face him and opening her eyes with a lot of effort. "What do you want, Leo?"  
  
"Just wanted to bring you a couple of things, Ceej."  
  
"It couldn't have waited until I went home tomorrow?" she asked, yawning and reaching for the controls to the bed so she could sit up.  
  
"Nope... the press wanted to storm your room, shouting obscene questions at you, but we managed to keep them at bay..."  
  
CJ groaned. "Now why on earth would anyone want to pursue me with questions?" She flipped on the light and chuckled wryly. "Unless I had all the answers, that is."  
  
"Very funny. Have some flowers."  
  
"Abbey's gonna kick your ass for picking her begonias."  
  
"They're flowers - they'll grow back."  
  
"Yeah, like my hair," CJ said with a forlorn sigh. "That's probably what the press is so eager to hear about -- what I do to keep the skin on top of my head so well-conditioned."  
  
Leo smiled. "Open the box."  
  
She opened it and found a wig that was exactly the way her hair had been before she had begun to lose it from the effects of the chemotherapy. "Leo..."  
  
"Read the card."  
  
She sighed and pried open the card. "For Senator Claudia J. Cregg of New Hampshire," she read, her voice rising to an excited shriek as she rushed the rest, "from the Team. God bless you on your journey." She dropped the card and threw her arms around Leo. "We did it!"  
  
"Yeah, we did," he agreed.  
  
"And the only casualty was my hair!"  
  
"Hair grows back."  
  
"Yeah, well, at least I'm not that dead guy Missouri elected to the Senate a few years ago... I can still vote," she quipped with a goofy grin. "Oh my God, this is... so incredible!" There was a long pause, and she said, "Oh shit, I've got to pack."  
  
At the end of January, all of the freshmen Senators were called to the Capitol to take a tour with the other Senator from their respective state. CJ found herself faced with a tall, baby-faced Republican weenie named Brett Hansen.  
  
She sucked it up and smiled sweetly as she shook his hand. "Senator Hansen, it's a pleasure to meet you," she greeted warmly.  
  
"Likewise, Senator Cregg." His greeting wasn't quite so nice in the warmth category. "How much do you know about the Senate?"  
  
She raised an eyebrow. Uh, like... d'uh... she did work in the White House, had a Batchelors and Masters degree in political science, not to mention a doctorate in the same. "Well, that depends," she said. "Where's my office?"  
  
"Down the hall, to the right, room 124."  
  
"Okay. Where's the floor in relation to my office?"  
  
"Directly upstairs."  
  
She nodded. "Where do I send my staff to do my research?"  
  
"We can do it in conjunction with the OEOB and the Library of Congress..."  
  
"Okay, that's all I needed to know - thanks. See you around, Senator!" She turned on her heel and headed off to check out her office space and make sure there was enough room for her staff.  
  
And she left Brett Hansen in her dust, wondering just what the hell had just happened.  
  
She certainly wasn't the dead guy in the Senate, nor ever would she be.  
  
  
  
Finis  



End file.
